Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-21
TAKE / PLANK.
If iou Will Not Enter the Port Of
Safety on Board the Ship, Float
In on a Spar.
You Say Y0u Do Not Believe in He'll,
DO You Believe Herod With His
Children Victims is in Heayen9
If Vou Have Been a Sinner Ali Your Life
And Have Day OF On Hour Left,
Go to Christ,
Special to the Gazette.


BROOKLYN, N. Z, jar. lG.-For many
years the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the
largest Protestant church in America,
has been thronged twice on the Sabbath,
every available inch occupied, even the
aisles, pulpit stairs and doorways, and
multitudes going eway unable to get in,
DIR. Talmage recently announced TO his
congregation that, il the present build
ing could be sold for an academy Of
music, another church, one holding ie,-
0GO people, would be erected. This
morning after e1pounding the scriptures,
he gave out the hymn:
Sinners turn. why will We diea
God, your Maker, AXIS you 1hy.
The subject OF the sermon was
"Broken Pieces of the Ship" end the
text, Acts xvii, A: "Some on broken
pieces of the ship" DR.. Taimage spoke
as follows:
Never off Goodwin Sands, or the
Skerries, or Cape Hatteras was a ship
in worse predicament than in the Medi-
terranean hurricane was the grain ship,
on which 276 passengers were driven on
the coast of Malta, fge miles from the
metropolis of that Island, called Citta
Vecchis. After a two weeks tempest
and the ship was entirely disabled and
captain and crew were completely de
moralized, an old missionary took COM
mand Of the vessel. He was small,
CRoOHED-BACKBD
and sore-eyed, according to tradition.
1t was Paul, the only unsecured man
aboard. lie was no more afraid OF
Euroclydon tossing the Mediterranean
of cd
now sinking it to the gates of hell, than
he was afraid of kitten playing with
string He ordered them all down to
take Their ratioHs, first ask
ing for them a blessing. Then
he insured all their lives, telling them
they would be rescued, and, so far from
losing th-ir heads, they would not lose
SO much of their hair as you could cut
off with one click Of the scissors; aye,
not a thread OF it, whether it were grsy
with age or golden with youth. "There
Shall not a hair fall from the head OF any
of You"
knowing that they eau never get to the
desired port, they make the sea or the
fourteenth night black with CverthrOwn
cargo, so that when the ship strikes it
will not str, Ike so heavily. At daybraak
they saw creek, and in their eXlgency
resolved to make for it. And so they cut
the cables, took in the two paddles that
they had on these old boats, and hoiSted
the main-sail so that they might come
with such force as to be driven high up
the beach by some fortunate billow.
There she goes-tumbling toward the
rocks, now PROV foremost, now stern
foremost, now rolling over to starboard,
now wave Gashes clear over the deck
and it seems as if the old craft has gone
forever. But up she comes again. Paul's
arm around a mast, he cries: "All is
welt God has given me all those that
sail with me-" Crash went the PROV
with such force that it broke OFF the mast.
Crasht went thsnbers till the seas
rushe Through - <S:de to side of the
vessel She parts amldships, and into
- busand fragments the vessel goes, and
to the waves 276 immortals are precip
itated. Some of them had been brought
up on the seashore and had learned to
swim, and with their chin just above the
waves and by stroke of both arms and
propulsion
OF BOTH FEET,
they put out for the beach and reached
it. But alas for those Others They
had never learned to swim, or they were
wounded by the falling of the mast, or
the nervous shock was too great for them.
And others had been weakened by long
sea sickncss.
Oh, what will become of them? "Take
that piece of q rudter," says Paul TO one.
"Take that fragment of a SPAR" says
Paul to another. "Take that table,
''Take that image of Castor and PolluX."
"Take that plank FROM the lifeboat y
To inc fcr ia
What q struggle for life in the breakers!
Oh, the merciless waters, how they sweep
over the heads OF men, women AID Chi
tffeS Hold on there! Almost ashore,
keep up YOUR courage. Remember what
Paul told you. There, the receding wave
on the beac1 leaves in the sand Il whole
family. There crawls up out Of the surf
the centurion. There another plank
comes in with life clingipg fast to it.
There another piece Of the shattered YES
Sci with its freIghtaGc of an immortal
soul. They must by this time all be
saved. Yes; there comes in last of all,
for he had been overseeing the rest, the
old missionary, who wrlngs the water
from his gray beard and cries out: "Thank
God, all are here!"
Gather them around a fire and call the
roll. Paul builds fire, and when the
bundles of sticks begin to Crackle, and,
standing and sitting around the blaze,
the passengers begin to recover from
their chill, and their wet clothes begin to
dry, and warmth begins to come into all
the shivering passengers, let the purSeT
of the vessel go around and see if any of
the poor creatures are missing. Not one
of the crowd that were plunged into the |
sea- How it relieves our anxiety as we
read: "Some on broken pieces OF the |
ship, and so it came to pass that all es
capped safe to land"
Having on previous occasions looked
at the other passengers, | conine myself
to-day to the examination OF those who
came in
on BROKEN PIECES
ot'tke ship. There is something about |
them that eXctes in me an intense inter-
est. | am not so much interested IN
those that could swim. They got ashore as
l expected mile of water is not very .
great undertaking for strong swimmer,
or even two miles are not. But cannot
stop thinking about those on broken
pieces of the ship. The great gospel ship
is the finest vessel Of the universe and
can carry more passengers than any craft
ever constructed, and you coNd no more
wreck it than you could wreck the ihrone
of God Almighty. | wish all the people
would come aboard OF her. / coUlC not
promise smooth voyage, for oftimes 1t
Will be tempestuouS or chopped sea,
but ! could promise safe arrival for all
who took passage en- that Great Eastern,
so called toy me because Its commander
came out of the east, the star OF the East
q badge of His authority.
But vast multitude do not take regu- :
lar passage. Their theology is broken in
pieces, and their life is broken in pieces,